Technical 2010 Fiat Panda Active Eco issues

[ZenZen]

Hello everyone, I hope someone here may be able to give some answers to some quite strange goings on with my other half's 2010 Fiat Panda Active Eco.

I have witnessed some of these things myself when in the car with her. There is no definitive thing I can point to and hope someone on here may be able to shed some light.

Today for instance she left work and the engine management light started flashing on the car, it then started juddering or "shaking" as she put it. She pulled in and it was still shaking, turned the car off and restarted it and no light or shaking.

I have also been in the car once recently and when she started the car up the revs went right up immediately without even touching any pedals, the only way this can be stopped is by turning the car off. When she restarted it, the battery light was flashing on and off and then stopped flashing.

This also happened one other time and each time she started the car it revved right up and did this for 3 restarts before going back to some sort of normality. She has also noticed the temp needle dropping down while driving and then going back up to its normal position, I would have presumes it would either stay at the normal position or possibly rise slightly when driving, but dropping down seems quite strange.

Anyone any ideas on what on earth could be causing this?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
ZenZen

 

[chris3234]

What engine is in the cat?

 

[ZenZen]

Hi Chris its the 1.1 version. Also forgot to say it has been registering 30 or 40mph a couple of times on the speedo when sitting still. These happenings just seem to be random.

Regards,
ZenZen

 

[koalar]

Need the engine error code reading really. Instead of use shooting in the dark and suggesting every part of the engine

Battery and / or earth are also known to cause the gauges to go haywire and odd idle. Some quick checked with a volt meter would help. Although it rarely throws the engine check light

Negative to positive on the battery after the cars been off for a couple of hours. Should read around 12.7v

Negative on the battery to any bare metal of the car body should read 0v

Negative to positive with the car running around 14.1v

 

[ZenZen]

Thanks koalar, the engine management light came on with a few others, one again being the battery light, the car at that stage seemed to lose some power, but then the lights went off and it regained power again. It definitely (and I am no expert) points to something electrical. the battery has been in it quite a number of years and I supposed with the cold and damp weather recently it would take its toll on it even more. I will try and get a multimeter to test the battery.

The only thing though is the car still seems to start OK, not like it is struggling, which surely would be an indicator a battery on its way out would it not?

Thanks again!

 

[ZenZen]

Hello again, I have a Vgate OBD scanner and just connected it to find the following:

P0300 Stored
P0304 Stored
U1600 Stored
U1602 Pending


Can anyone give any information on these?

Thanks again for any help and assistance.

 

[koalar]

There doesn't seem to be a logical connection between the code

U1600 key not recognized does crop up with a flat battery. Seems the system gets itself in a knot.

I wait until you measured the volts.

 

[koalar]

P03??

Are misfire so not that helpful yet.

You could check spark plug 4 and see if it's a different colour to the rest. But you might be better waiting until you checked the volts. Could just be weak spark and cylinder 4 was just the first to fail.

 

[koalar]

Does your scanner do live data ?

 

[irc]

Heard of very similar symptoms on a 1.1 Active Eco.
Mechanic had spent hours looking for problem when I turned up in another Panda. Strangely, he didn't seem pleased to see me...
Suggested he cleaned and re-plugged the ECU connectors, and almost all problems instantly disappeared.
Of course, the battery was also knackered, as was the battery earth lead, but he was pleased to get rid of the random revs and disco lights.
At least it got my puncture repaired free!

 

[Goudrons]

There is a common fault with the 1.1 wiring loom that can cause misfire and/or injector problems that could be responsible.

It's in the smaller bunch/connector of the two bunches/connectors to the ECU on the side of the battery.

From all accounts, it seems to be a shared wire (a split or Y) in the loom/connector that's loose, which is probably why differing codes get flagged.

The issue only seems to effect the 1.1.

Owners first notice it misfire or cut out over bumps and humps in the road.
They often flag up injector (P02**) and/or misfire (P03**) codes.

The juddering and shaking you describe is it running on 3 cylinders (or less).

Here's a post of someone tracing and fixing the loom issue, it's worth reading until the end.

https://www.fiatforum.com/panda/420817-injector-problem-code-p0202-cyl-2-injector.html

This may help too

The engine wiring loom on 1.1 ECO Pandas is a known source of misfire issues so here is a bit more info for OBD CODES P201 P202 P203 & P204 and presumably P352 & P352.

The Injector & Coil Return wires are Brown/Red and are all joined together inside the wiring loom about 30mm into the plastic tube on top of the cam cover that protects the Injector wires. It is a crimped connection and on a 2010 Panda 1.1 ECO and joins with a Light Blue/Yellow wire that goes to Pin F on the Plug/Socket D004 which is the 8 pin front engine coupling near the Engine Fuse Box. In the Manual it shows this Light Blue/Yellow wire as Brown/Black but this is presumably for earlier models.

You will need to cut the 25mm crimp connection out, strip back the wires and solder them with a short piece of wire to replace the crimp connection. If you don't put a link piece of wire in you may find that the injector wires are too short.

I found all this out the hard way with an intermittent P202 that did not change codes when I swapped injectors.
This might just help with fixing some intermittent Injector & Coil Faults.